AP file photo New York governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a ceremony to sign a package of bills to combat the opioid crisis, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in New York.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s mask mandate will remain in effect while the state appeals a ruling from a lower court judge overturning it, an appellate panel of judges ruled Monday.

The ruling from the four-judge panel followed an appeals court judge’s decision last week temporarily restoring it the day after the initial ruling overturning it.

The state’s health commissioner had reinstated the mask mandate in mid-December over a surge in coronavirus cases, requiring masks in schools, health care facilities, homeless shelters, jails, public transportation, and in any indoor public area where vaccination wasn’t required for entry.

It was initially put in place for a least a month; it has now been extended to Feb. 10.

A group of parents sued over the mandate, and in the initial ruling against it, a judge said the governor and the health department didn’t have the authority to reinstate it.

In the decision from the appeals panel, the judges said the mandate would be in place until the state’s appeal of the lower court ruling was decided, and said the state had until March 2 to file.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press.